The Pampered Chef

Hey Everyone-

Just wanted to let you all know I started selling Pampered Chef now- so if you are interested in doing a cooking show or a catalog show please just let me know!!

Pampered Chef has great products for Wedding Gifts and Gifts for yourself or for friends.

Just think -if you are a Maid of Honor or family member putting on a shower for an engaged couple, we can set up a wish list for wedding goers to buy things the couple want off the wish list.

Great Ideas!! Just let me know!

Thanks
Ali

Big Move at a Crazy Time

So this weekend Trent and I are moving to a smaller place. We are going from 3 bedrooms 3 bathrooms and two level place to a two bed room and a storage room, 1 bathroom and 1 level place. WE are going to definitely figure out what true love is with the one bath room. I’m really excited to move because it will be a change and I will get to redecorate, and I’m also excited about the set up of the new place. The kitchen is going to be bigger and the dining room and living room are the entire length of the place so we will have more room for our table and for guests. Also another thing I am excited about is that our place now has a stackable washer and dryer in the kitchen and this place will have a side by side in the den/storage room. YAY!! It is definitely the small things in life :).

I’m going to miss having the two levels so you can have a division of rooms but I think that the cats are going to miss it the most. Homer loves to lay on the steps all day and night long and they both love to run up and down the steps to play and chase eachother. It is fun to watch.

Anyway I’m excited to move because that means that next weekend we will be on our way home for Christmas :) YAY!! Can’t wait!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Our Thanksgiving was great….it was our 2^nd annual Iowa Orphan Thanksgiving at my place. It was so much fun! I really missed my family but it was so great to have our friends surrounding us with so much happiness. As I was doing the dishes I heard everyone in the living room laughing and talking and it was such a great feeling.

We had SOOO much food! I made the “famous scalloped corn” since no one had ever heard of that before and I made it last year also and they all loved it. I also attempted for the first time my Grandma’s secret pie recipe which the pie part was good but the crust was a disaster, so it pretty much became a second topping, but it was still good…but not as good as Grandma’s. It still brought back a lot of great memories though!

I also got my first lesson this year from our neighbor Vickie on how to prepare a turkey…GROSS!!! Seriously, you have to get really up close and personal with a turkey…eww…I’m glad I lucked out and got to watch and didn’t have to perform and butt stuffing…ewww…Turkeys are really slimy. But it was delicious.

All and all the 2^nd annual Iowa Orphan Thanksgiving was a success!! It was also our last event in the place we live now since we are moving December 10^th. YAY!

Alright I Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Harry Potter/ Sale Shopping Weekend

This weekend was VERY Productive. First I did some packing for our upcoming move. And then I helped my neighbor take care of some kids in need- We took them out to eat at Pizza Hut and had them watch a movie to keep their mind off what had happened to them.

Then on Sunday AM I got up and my neighbor and I went to the Leesburg Outlets to do some Christmas shopping / work clothes shopping. We hit up some GREAT sales and I got a bunch of cute things for work and the house and Christmas Presents J YAY!!

After I got home Trent and I then got ready and we went to Harry Potter with a couple of his friends from his work. It was a decent movie, I still like the other movies better but it was good. I think that I really need to read the rest of the books. I have only made it thru the 4^th book. I guess I am going to need to get a bigger purse since you can’t get Harry Potter for your Nook or Kindle.

All in all though I had a great weekend.

Now I need to get the house prepared for our 2^nd annual Iowa Orphan Thanksgiving day celebration at our place since we have the biggest kitchen and dining room area! I’m excited!

Warrior Dash Work out

So Trent and his co-workers got this great idea about doing a Warrior Dash next Spring. It is "3.11 hellish miles". Here is the website for you to check it out.
http://www.warriordash.com/register2011_maryland.php

The race consists of:

Running thru tires
running thru mossy trees
Diving into darknees and escaping the trenches
Jumping over junkyard stuff/cars
Climbing voer cargo nets
climbing over hay bales
crawling across nets
sliding down a slippery slope
walking a tight rope
climbing over walls
jumping over fire
and finishing with muddy mayhem-crawling under barbed wire fence in the mud.

It is all in that order too spread out thru 3.11 miles.

Now you can see the craziness That my husband wants to put me through. We are going to start out work out today so I will try to keep you posted. AAHHH!! I'm going to die.

Hopefully we stick to training out because this will be good for us.

Second to Last day

So back in October…actually October 1^st thru the 18^th I was temporarily out of work due to a mishap with all of the contractor’s contracts at my work. Some of us were off for a week and some are still out….which that really sucks.

Anyway I missed out on 88 hours of work, so there for our company was nice enough to let us do over time to try to compensate for the money lost while we were gone. So we did a simple equation of number hours missed divided by 1.5 for time and a half. Anyway I had 58.666 hours to make up and we could only do 2 hours extra a day and only 8 hours each weekend day.

ANYWAY…My point is I am so very excited to say that last Saturday the 13^th was my last Saturday working and today is my second to last day of over time!

I’m very excited to say that my last day of over time is on my Sister and Brother – in – laws birthday J YAY!! Many celebrations are due for this fact. YAY!!

From this experience I have figured out that I will NEVER be the person that works 60 hour work weeks and come in on the weekends…HOLY COW….ITS Hard!!!!!

Anyway I am thankful I got to make up my hours but I am so happy to know I am finally about done J

More Random Facts- working Hard

While working to make up hours of overtime for being on “temporary vacation” I found some more dumb facts I thought I’d share…..

More dumb facts

Every time you lick a stamp, you’re consuming 1/10 of a calorie.

This is why people should e-mail

During your lifetime, you’ll eat about 60,000 pounds of food, that’s the weight of about 6 elephants!

Wow I feel fat lol!

Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people!

Trent ….BE CAREFUL!!

The sentence “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” uses every letter of the alphabet!

In the U.S. there are 18 doctors called Dr. Doctor, and one called Dr. Surgeon. There is also a dermatologist named Dr. Rash, a psychiatrist called Dr. Couch and an anesthesiologist named Dr. Gass.

We know a Dr.Sueme

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel, “Gadsby”, which contains over 50,000 words — none of them with the letter E! Of all the words in the English language, the word set has the most definitions!

Is this possible?

Mount Vernon, IA

All softball diamond lights must be turned off by 10:30 PM.

Guess we know why State Softball isn’t held there.

Baltimore, MD

It’s illegal to take a lion to the movies.----- SERIOUSLY!!

Rockville, MD

Persons may not swear while on the highway.

Good thing I didn’t have a car when we lived in Rockville…haha

Alright now..everyone enjoy...I enjoyed looking them up and wasting 30 mins :)

Quirky Facts

I know I know … you are all probably falling off your chairs right now…but I keep reading my sisters blog and wishing I would blog or have something to blog about. So I am going to attempt to get back into blogging about my life. The first thing I am going to blog about is something I saw on Yahoo.com today about kissing. Very interesting to me so I thought I would share with everyone else.
Have a great day!

1. Two out of every three couples turn their heads to the right when they kiss.

2. A simple peck uses two muscles; a passionate kiss, on the other hand, uses all 34 muscles in your face. Now that’s a rigorous workout!

3. Like fingerprints or snowflakes, no two lip impressions are alike.

4. Kissing is good for what ails you. Research shows that the act of smooching improves our skin, helps circulation, prevents tooth decay, and can even relieve headaches.

5. The average person spends 336 hours of his or her life kissing.

6. Ever wonder how an “X” came to represent a kiss? Starting in the Middle Ages, people who could not read used an X as a signature. They would kiss this mark as a sign of sincerity. Eventually, the X came to represent the kiss itself.

7. Talk about a rush! Kissing releases the same neurotransmitters in our brains as parachuting, bungee jumping, and running.

8. The average woman kisses 29 men before she gets married.

9. Men who kiss their partners before leaving for work average higher incomes than those who don’t.

10. The longest kiss in movie history was between Jane Wyman and Regis Tommey in the 1941 film, You’re in the Army Now. It lasted 3 minutes and 5 seconds. So if you’ve beaten that record, it’s time to celebrate!

Laura Schaefer is the author of Man with Farm Seeks Woman with Tractor: The Best and Worst Personal Ads of All Time.

almost D-Day!

I know I have not been good at blogging but I am was looking at my sister's blog of how adorable my Nephew is ... I just want to steal him when I get home... ha ha..JK Mandy!
Anyway I'm getting sooo excited to come home in 9 days and then I'm getting married to my best friend in 18 days.
it is so hard to believe because we started planning this a year and 1/2 ago. Time just flew by. When we started this it seemed it would be forever and we would have plenty of time and then all of the sudden there were only 3 months left and I had a freak out couple days because we hadn't done anything in forever.
Now my Dress is DONE!! and it is AMAZING! I can't wait to showcase it at my wedding because no one is allowed to see it before the wedding! haha! I'm so excited about it.
Actually everything is done for the wedding besides the last few things I have to do when I get home. I'm so excited to have a week at home to do whatever and get ready for my wedding! I can't wait..there will be ALOT of Maddox Spoling!! YAY!!
Anyway Just really excited and I had to share!

Wedding Plan

So since it has been FOREVER since I have blogged, I thought that I would update you on wedding plans. There is only 2.5 months to go...so crazy because when we started it was a year and a half and now its almost here.
Coming up I have two showers in one weekend. I will be home Feb 5th thru the 8th having a shower in Ringsted on Saturday at 9:30 am and then a shower ing Schleswig on Sunday at 9:30. It is going to be a shot gun weekend but I should get to see alot of people so I am excited about that!
We recently just figured out that you are supposed to send out your invites at 3 months and at exactly 3 months we had NO invites ordered or anything. So we ran to Micheals last min and got our invites and printed them and put them together. All I have to say is thank you to Lisa and Christa or they wouldn't have gotten done.
It has been super stressful lately planning the wedding because Trent hasn't been home at all. He has been working 15 hour days at work because they have a deadline coming up. Its crazy..sometimes I would honestly rather have a long distant relationship where you could still talk then have the relationship where we sleep in the same bed but never talk because he doesn't get home until 3 am and I leave before he does. Its hard....but we are getting along! We just talk during work now when we can because we have to.
All in all wedding planning is coming along. we just have some of the ending stuff lef but I dont think it is to much. I actualy don't know and usually only remember when my friends say something about it when they are planning their weddings. They are starting from the beginning so they are trying to figure everything out. So that helps alot!
Anyway sorry I haven't posted forever. Hopefully I will be better again!

I’m so Proud of him!

On Saturday July 18th Trent ran in an 8k race – 5 miles up in Rockville, MD. He did awesome. He ran all of it but a couple blocks! How great is that especially since he hasn’t trained at all! He finished in 56 mins! He did awesome. He even had a kick at the end to beat 4 girls because he said he didn’t want to be beaten by girls..ha ha! But YAY for him!
I have a picture of him after the race! I’ll try to send it from my phone!
YAY TRENT! Congrats!

DC Metro Crash 6-22-09

As I am sure most of you know on June 22nd 2009 there was a metro crash on the red line out here in DC. This was very scary because we travel the red line every day and April only works 4 stops away from where the accident happened. It is the worst accident that Metro has ever had, killing 9 people. All because of a glitch in the system that they had “just fixed” that told the traveling train (the one on top of the other one) that there wasn’t a train on the track any more so she took off again and then when she figured out what happened and pulled the E-brake and it didn’t respond. It is a very sad story.
Anyway since the accident happened the trains have been running on manual instead of on automatic and the trains are traveling all the way to the end of each platform. I know this doesn’t sound like a big deal but WOW does it change everything. The trains now travel at a whopping 35 miles per hour where before they were traveling at about 55 to 60. Also they used to stop about a metro car length from the end and now they pull all the way forward so you used to be able to stand at the end of the platform or close to the end to get on your train and everyone has their “spot” on the platform picked out and this happened to me…your standing there and the train is coming and here’s the 2nd to last car and they still aren’t slowing so me along with everyone else has to run up into the mess of ppl just to try to get onto the train where when you used to be able to stand at the ends to get on to a less crowded train. VERY ANNOYING!! Also now in the mornings the trains are coming about every 7 –9 mins when they used to come ever 2 to 5 mins so that is very annoying. I always said I would NEVER run to get on a train but now you have to in the morning otherwise you will be REALLY late for work because they travel so slow.
They are saying that the trains will be traveling this slow for at least a year on the red line AAAAHHHHH…it is annoying…I am hoping that slowly that will change and I will be able to stand at the end of the platform again to miss out on all of the people and be able to get my own seat or at least sit down!
Anyway besides that mess things in DC are going well! :D

Add on-stuff I forgot...most important stuff too!

Oh I forgot to add in the last post that I got to see my family which was AWESOME…I am sure that everyone reads Mandy’s blog so you would know that. But it was so awesome and I was SO excited Mandy wore the dress I bought her even though she thinks it makes her look too pregnant but I think she looked adorable. I am kind of angry though because the baby waited until we left to start kicking to that ppl could feel it. It sucks because I won’t ever be home again befor it is born so I won’t get to feel it! Little bugger! Ha ha! Anyways also our foreign exchange student that we had back in 2007 I believe came back for in time for the wedding and now she is out here in DC with us doing some touring..it is great to see her again and she fits right in again. Feels like she never left! So much fun!
One of the hardest parts though is leaving home. Mom is just as bad as me and when we were getting ready to leave she got emotional…and then so did I and she said, “I thought this would get easier with time, but it doesn’t” makes me sad. Missing home is getting worse now with the baby on the way and the struggles with getting the wedding planning done. Alright though I will add more about random stuff later!

My Last week

Last week was a busy week that didn’t start out the greatest. Monday morning was alright but Monday night I started to feel sick. This was not a big deal except for the fact that Wednesday I needed to be on a plane home for my best friends wedding. So I didn’t really think anything of it until the next morning when I couldn’t even get out of bed. Ok so long story short I had strep throat really bad and couldn’t go to work Tuesday or Wednesday. On Wednesday night April and I flew home and we landed about 30 mins early so that was nice since we still have a 3 hour drive home.
On Thursday I got up EARLY and did some quick things before we went down to Palmer, IA to the ladies house that is doing my silk flower arrangements for out wedding. She wanted me to come and see what she was doing to see whether or not I liked them or if I thought she needed to do things differently. She had 3 different arrangements and I liked the most difficult one the best of course. Ha ha but I think we figured out how to not make them as difficult and so unsteady. YAY!
Thursday night I went to my old softball team’s game in Estherville. They played hard but didn’t have the ending score they would have liked but it was fun to see people. Then after wards we went to Woody’s pizza and I got to hang with the family and Emily (whom I miss tons) so that was great! I wish I had more time to just hang out with people but I guess that is what happens when you move away!
Friday morning I woke up early and helped Tab and Matt and family set up for the BIG DAY!! When I arrived that had just switched all the tables from going north and south to going east and west because they could fit more people and have the serving line where they wanted it along with the head table. It looked great. After they figured that out, set up only took about 2 hours. Not bad at all. They had some little details after I left to do but they didn’t need very many people. So I went home and took a nap to re-energize for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.
Rehearsal went very well and I got a lot of ideas to do and not to do which was nice because I had NO idea. There wasn’t anything bad just some things that I want to do differently. But it was great to get some ideas!
On Saturday (THE BIG DAY) I was at my friend’s mom’s house at 9:15 to get my hair done! It was fun because we just relaxed and chatted away as we got ready. Everything ran so smoothly! Pictures started at 1:30 I believe and it was nice because we got to relax and eat so we were starving for the wedding and not dying of a heat stroke because we had no fluids in us or food. It was crazy because before the wedding the church was FREEZING but by the time everyone was in there the church was soo hot and up in front was even worse. I got lucky because I had a fan blowing right on my legs but I felt so bad for the groomsmen because they were dying and they were in black so when we went outside it got even worse! The wedding was so beautiful and when Tab came down the aisle I lost it..ha ha…Thanks Mom for the sensitive genes! Ha ha!
That was awesome too I’m so happy for Tab and Matt…and when they gave their speeches and Matt called Tabetha a beautiful woman and I lost it again! Ha ha!
Anyway that was my last week for wedding stuff…more later!

Puerto Rico

This last weekend/Thursday thru Sunday, Trent and I went to Puerto Rico for Trent’s work. It was soo much fun. We were put up in the Ritz Carlton for 4 days and 3 nights and were waited on hand and foot and it was great. I got to see two of my friends and that was awesome. I really want to go down there for a week though just to spend time with my friends and see what they know about the Island and actually see EVERYONE!
We did so many things but they had meetings until 12:30 and then we had social hours at 6:30 all night by the beach or the pool. It was really cool because on Friday night we had a cocktail party type thing down on the beach in our nice dresses and suits and it was so much fun. They had a lot of fancy food so I actually pry lost weight on the trip because I am a scardy cat when it comes to food :S ha ha I know I am soo picky.

Ill Chillins

We had to take Homer and Mowgli to the Vet yesterday because well Homer had sores about 7 weeks ago that were all over and he was licking them until they bled, so we took him to the vet and got him a cortisone shot and he was great until last week when April noticed a few sores on him and that he wasn't moving around much during the day mostly just lying around and sleeping or hiding. So I called and got him an appointment and Mowgli one for her Rabies shot, which ended up working great because on Saturday she decided to vomit 5 times all over the apartment.
So getting them to the Vet yesterday was very interesting. We have on hard cat carrier and one soft-sided one, which is how I got Mowgli home at Christmas time. Anyway Mowgli has gained about 6 lbs since Christmas time according to the vet, not sure if I believe that but anyway...she is a BIG cat...and the vet called her fat and put her on a diet...ha ha...oops. Anyway trying to get them into their carriers I put Homer in the soft sided carrier which sucked for him because he is a LONG cat...very long..but then I had to put Mowgli...into the little hard sided carrier...and well her butt didn't fit AT ALL...so I had to shove her in head first...IT SUCKED!! When we got them to the vet we had to take the hard carrier apart because Mowgli had sucked herself against the back and side and was Growling…she was a horrible cat at the vet and I felt so horrible…but then after her shot when the vet backed away Mowgli fell of the table…and the assistant was apologizing over and over again and I was laughing…ha ha I’m a horrible person. Probably one check against me…but she kind of deserved it after almost biting the vet and assistant. Oh well…
Anyway after checking them both out the vet put them on some special Hypoallergenic food because she thinks it is a food allergy for both cats. Hopefully it works because it is super expensive. Anyway she said that Mowgli also needed to lose weight about 2 lbs because she is a 14 lb cat and Homer is a 12 lb cat so we need Homer to maintain weight and Mowgli to lose...so this is going to be interesting because while we are at work we can't make them eat out of their own bowl...so hopefully it works.
Mowgli is on a diet.

Best Birthday Ever

I got really lucky this year because on the day of my birthday 4/5th of my family was out here. Dad couldn't make it. But as you know April is living with us and then Mandy was out here for her work and because they were out here mom decided she should come to....AND it worked great because it was my birthday. For my actual birthDAY Mandy and ppl got a tour of INTERPOL and then after that Mom and April and I went SHOPPING!!! YAY!! So I got some cool clothes but we also showered Mandy with awesome stuff too! I love shopping for her and "peanut" but I call it Baby Hunecke! TOO EXCITING! Then that night we went to Mandy's hotel room and hung out and ate Pizza..my favorite food!! YAY! Great birthday all in all. Over the weekend we did more shopping and some site seeing and Mom and April got to meet Trent's Aunt and Uncle and we talked more about the wedding. It was a great time. Things are coming along with the wedding..slowly but surely.
A friend of mine just got engaged a week ago and so tonight we are going out to eat and talk about getting started planning for weddings because she says she is lost! I am not sure where I really even started but it should be a good time! YAY!

New Roomie

April Moved in on Friday and so far everything has gone smoothly. Once she got here we met up with Trent on the way home so he could help with the bags since she just had surgery and isn't supposed to do a whole lot of walking and heavy lifting. So we met up with Trent and then headed home. Friday night we just made spaghetti and hung out in the apartment. On Saturday Trent went to a air show and April and I stayed home and didn't do a whole lot. I cleaned a lil bit and took a nap..ha ha and got a pedi from April ha ha! Love it! Then on Saturday night we met up with my friend Lisa and her boyfriend Ian and we went to Dave and Busters and ate and played games. It was fun!
On Sunday we went to Ikea and got April a dresser so she could get all the way settled in. We rearranged her room so it was more comfortable when she slept because the cold air vent was shooting right on her face so now she is totally out of the direct shot of the air...so hopefully she won't freeze out in there. It sucks because our bedroom doesn't get very cold at night because the vent I guess doesn't work very well and I get so hot and can't sleep so we crank it way down, well Aprils vent works GREAT...and she freezes..ha ha! So hopefully this fixes it! I guess we might just have to put it at 70 insted of 68 at night!
Tonight she and I are going to the Nationals vs. Pirates game. My friend Susan invited us to go along. I am excited! It is always fun to go to the games but it is going to be a lil bit chilly. Oh well still fun!

YAY!

My little sister arrives today at 4;38 to live with us for the summer. I am excited for what is to come this summer. YAY!! Wish Us luck!

Its A Small World After All

I had to use that Saying for My sister Mandy because she LOVES that song...anytime you can sing it around her you should...ha ha ok just kidding she hates it!
Ok the real reason for me using that is because on Tuesday night Trent and I met up with some of my friends from work and we went over and went bowling at a place called Lucky Strike. It was a great time. We were in about the 4th frame of the first game and Trent looks at me and is like...is that Kyle Miller from BV? I was like where...and when I looked over I went OMG yes it is. So this guy that went to our college and is now living in Georgia was up in DC for a work thing for the week and ended up being in the same place we were at the same time. How crazy is that.
My friend Brandon says that he thinks I have Iowa Tattooed on my head because I always run into people from Iowa! When I was doing touristy stuff with my friend Jen when she was out here we ran into a older woman who said her Grandma was born in Ringsted. How crazy is that!
When I went to a training for work there were 20 of us in the class and 4 of us were from Iowa...and to make it even better one guy works back in Iowa and about a week ago I ran into him at the food court over the lunch hour he was out here for another training...CRAZY!
Also over Easter I was in the same airport as one of my friend GF's who was also flying home...and when My parents were out here in February we went out to eat at Dave and Buster's....BEST PLACE EVER!! Chucky Cheese for Adults...anyway my ex-boyfriend and his girlfriend came over and were like OMG how are you doing...ha ha crazy!
Definately have Iowa Tattooed Somewhere!!